CONNECTING CITIES @ URBAN MEDIA KITCHEN

On the 23 January 2014, as a kick-off of our transmediale 2014 Vorspiel events, Public Art Lab invited actors from the field of contemporary digital creation, new media and culture to our space in Berlin Wedding. The kitchen-like setting with steaming soup provided a vibrant atmosphere in which our guests gave short input/inspirational talks presenting their showcase projects and their field of expertise. Berlin based artists and institutions, such as The Constitute, Martin Stebbing from W33 and LEAP took the stage, before zooming out and focusing on other European and global projects and their representatives. Tanya Toft introduced Nordic Outbreak, a touring exhibition project that she is curating and producing with Nina Colosi. Traveling across the Nordic region and New York, the festival explores the new dynamics in Nordic moving image. We thematically stayed in Scandinavia for a while with Daniela Arriado, who presented the Screen City festival that is dedicated to the moving image presented in public spaces. Further, on a global scale Joana Mendo and Christoph Gisel came to Wedding and told us more about the philosophy and practice of Arup Lighting. Together with experts from different fields, they are investigating the possibilities of sustainable light concepts and media facades. Their showcase project demonstrates that a change of mindset is occurring, not only concerning the content of media facades but also their use of energy. In that sense the GreenPix zero-energy media wall, located in Beijing, is a perfect example as it is an interactive facade that produces twice the energy it consumes.

The Urban Media Kitchen also opened the Telepresent Gallery. For the Telepresent Gallery, the shop windows of our space were temporarily transformed into screens. Similarly to the talks that opened up perspectives on projects around Europe and globally, the live streamed performance, connected Wedding to the world. It allowed the public to digitally peek into other locations, such as restaurants in US, Clubs in Ukraine, Hotel lobbies in Russia or Laundromats in France, while networking and exchanging ideas on site.